Grand Central Square Project

A state Assembly committee hearing next week will investigate the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's involvement in a proposed plan to financially bail out the Grand Central Square project in downtown Los Angeles. Kevin Murray, the Culver City Democrat who is chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, announced Monday that the panel will take up the matter at a Nov. 19 meeting at MTA headquarters.

A state Assembly committee hearing next week will investigate the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's involvement in a proposed plan to financially bail out the Grand Central Square project in downtown Los Angeles. Kevin Murray, the Culver City Democrat who is chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, announced Monday that the panel will take up the matter at a Nov. 19 meeting at MTA headquarters.

From atop his ornate Million Dollar Building at 3rd and Broadway, Ira E. Yellin surveys the patchwork that makes up downtown Los Angeles and dreams of ways to tie the diverse pieces together with Broadway as the centerpiece. To the west rise the gleaming office and residential towers of Bunker Hill. To the east lie Little Tokyo and the site of the new state office building.

The local government agencies that financed $44 million in bonds four years ago to help develop the privately owned Grand Central Square now plan to provide millions of additional dollars to rescue the struggling downtown Los Angeles project that includes a historic market, apartments and offices.

The local government agencies that financed $44 million in bonds four years ago to help develop the privately owned Grand Central Square now plan to provide millions of additional dollars to rescue the struggling downtown Los Angeles project that includes a historic market, apartments and offices.

The City Council this week approved a request to lend the Grand Central Square project $800,000 to complete architectural plans for new apartments in the area. Due to a low demand for office space, the Yellin Co. developers earlier this year dropped plans to build offices and instead decided to construct 121 housing units in the Homer Laughlin Building at 315 S. Broadway and the Million Dollar Building at 306 W. 3rd St.

In an effort to save the privately owned Grand Central Square project, the City Council agreed on steps Wednesday to avoid foreclosure of the historic downtown market, office and apartment complex. Under agreements between the Community Redevelopment Agency and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the CRA will help the developer, Ira Yellin, cover his bond debt. The CRA will pay about $600,000 per year for the next four years and $99,000 in each of the following 25 years.

CITY COUNCIL PROJECT CONSULTANT: Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas requested that consultant Jaye A. Young be hired to provide consulting services on proposed commercial projects within Thomas' 8th Council District. If approved, Young will be hired for about three months and will be paid $44 per hour, with the total not to exceed $10,560. NEIGHBORHOOD POSADAS: Approved temporary street closures within Boyle Heights for eight neighborhood posadas .

The southern half of the El Pueblo historic district in downtown Los Angeles has sat mainly empty and decaying for decades, as various restoration plans have collapsed. Tourists walking over from adjacent Olvera Street often wonder why the rare 19th-century buildings are off limits. Now, a new effort is underway to revive the seven city-owned buildings, known collectively as the Pico-Garnier block. The city is studying a proposal by the Catellus Development Corp.

Los Angeles made some unwise investments in private commercial real estate projects in the 1990s, partly because officials paid too little attention to whether tens of millions of dollars in tax subsidies would lead to creation of quality jobs, a cost-benefit analysis of redevelopment has concluded. The subsidies yielded many jobs paying $6.50 per hour or less.

From atop his ornate Million Dollar Building at 3rd and Broadway, Ira E. Yellin surveys the patchwork that makes up downtown Los Angeles and dreams of ways to tie the diverse pieces together with Broadway as the centerpiece. To the west rise the gleaming office and residential towers of Bunker Hill. To the east lie Little Tokyo and the site of the new state office building.

Surely somewhere in this city are a few people who love cities. At least that's the bet developer Ira Yellin is making as he directs a $64-million renovation of Downtown's Grand Central Market--an innovative project that restores the aged grace of three historic buildings, mixes low-income and luxury apartments and capitalizes on easy access to the region's budding rail transit network.